The Daily Stoic

Love the podcast and the books and the perspective that ensues as a result ! I am kind of obsessed with stoicism and Ryan Holiday does such an excellent job making connections to modern contexts and issues. I listen to the podcast and read the emails almost daily. Thank you for the work and the palpable, infectious passion for living the good life - the type 2 or 3 type good.

This is the only podcast review I’ve ever written, but I feel so strongly about it, that I had to take action. I’ve enjoyed Ryan Holiday’s work for a long time, including his books and his podcasts. But as his popularity and fame has increased, his ability to conduct interviews has degraded significantly. He now constantly interrupts his guests with his own “clever” insights, which I first found annoying and now unbearable (his interview of Michelle “MACE” Curran was the worst). I enjoy most of Holiday’s writings, but someone needs to tell him that when he interviews others, he should take Zeno’s advice… listen more than he speaks.

I like Ryan’s take on stoicism, and his historical examples. However his opinion on politics today is unnecessary. Just turns off half of the potential listeners.

The meditations are fantastic but the politics are ridiculous and arguably fly in the face of stoicism. Which stoics said we should be mandated by the state to redistribute wealth to others? I don’t quite understand how Ryan applies this interpersonal philosophy to broader society in such a hamfisted way. Stoics do the little things themselves, as Ryan often rightly points out, but they don’t demand that others pay for their social vision.